But even if the conclusion that Snowden is in drone danger is fantastic, the reasoning is not hard to follow: The calls for the death penalty have already started. And Snowden himself suggested to the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman that the U.S. intelligence community “will most certainly kill you if they think you are the single point of failure that could stop this disclosure and make them the sole owner of thisinformation.”

However, he isn’t anymore, having turned over “thousands of documents” to the reporters telling his story. And besides, so far in the Snowden saga we know he’s been in Hong Kong and considered seeking asylum in Iceland. Those aren’t exactly places where one can operate cruise missiles and drones withoutscrutiny.